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spite of their flaws, some more obvious than others, the days of
the judges (or saviours) of Israel present us with some of the
Old Testament's highest drama. Who of us has not thrilled to the
sight of Barak's ten thousand as they flew headlong down the
precipitous flank of Tabor toward the 'discomfited’ troops of
Sisera in the valley below? Who would not have been awed to
watch Samson carry off the gates of Gaza, doors, posts, ‘bar
and all’? Or the day he brought down the house at the end of
the last scene in his life? Would we not have thrown backs our
heads in laughter if we had heard the news at the market the day
after Ehud bearded the lion in his den at Eglon’s winter
palace in Jericho? And if only we had been privileged to watch
from a distance as the lights came on on the night ‘the sword
of the Lord and of Gideon’ avenged seven years of Midianite
oppression? Moving stories every one, but Othniel and Ehud,
Deborah and Barak, Gideon and Samson are not the only judges in
the book. What of those other judges?
There was Shamgar. Even his
name is listed as ‘of uncertain derivation’. The days in
which he lived were not easy. As Deborah and Barak sang, ‘In
the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the
highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through
byways’, Judg. 5. 6. For resources, they had only the
Pentateuch for a Bible and perhaps a few psalms. The Holy Spirit
did not indwell each believer as He does today. As far as we
know, there were no local gatherings for mutual encouragement
during those dark times. While the enemy made havoc of the
people of God ‘there was no king in Israel’ around which to
rally. And it had been eighty long years since Ehud had driven
back the Moabites from Israel’s southwestern border.
At such a time as that, Shamgar,
son of Anath, stepped into the breach. His weapon? An ox goad.
His opponents? Six hundred Philistines. His simple eulogy? ‘And
he also delivered Israel’. Shamgar could teach us the simple
secret of victory over such imposing foes today.
A goad assumes there will be
opposition, for that is what it is designed to do – to apply
to an immovable object a compelling reason to co-operate. Saul
of Tarsus discovered this and found it hard indeed to kick
against the One whose will he resisted, Acts 9. 5. Moses had
observed the same thing with the Israelites in his day, ‘But
Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art
grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God
which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation’,
Deut. 32. 15.
A goad has a point which is
only useful when driven home. As the Preacher put it, ‘The
words of the wise are as goads’, Eccl. 12. 11. If it was all
that Shamgar had, then he would not yield to the forces pitted
against his people. Let others take crooked bypaths to avoid the
uncircumcised foe; he would not. ‘The wicked flee when no man
pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion’, Prov. 28. 1.
A goad can serve as an
effective weapon if there is nothing else at hand. Shamgar would
have been a fit role model for Israel in the early days of King
Saul. ‘Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of
Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them
swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the
Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter,
and his axe, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the
mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the
axes, and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of
battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand
of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan’, 1 Sam.
13. 19-22. The Philistines could co-exist with the people of God
as long as Israel was unarmed. And is it not true in our day
that we have largely been disarmed by the enemy? Once known as
people of the Book, there is a decided lack of good swordsmen
among us.
But wait! A goad is not a
sword, to be sure, but Shamgar found it quite suitable to get
the job done. If we cannot yet handle the mighty sword of
Goliath as it was in David’s hands to behead the enemy, nor
the sword of Jonathan as he used it to humble a garrison, we
still have our files to sharpen the goads, v. 21. ‘Iron
sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
friend’, Prov. 27. 17. When public ministry is not what it
ought to be, then let us individually stir up one another with
some wise words learned from God in the quiet place. Let the
Shamgars among us not lose heart. Encourage one another daily,
to take the high road, to be ready for opposition from the
enemy, to have our point ready, to make it well, and to stick at
the job until we also are used to deliver the people of God.
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